


Baby, You Light Up My World

by wildestoftales



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fake-Baby Project AU, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:34:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2662190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildestoftales/pseuds/wildestoftales
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: <strong>"I just want all my OTPs to have to do the high school fake-baby project together."</strong></p><p> “I hope you know that I will fight you over this. I will physically fight you over the hypothetical last name of our fake-baby.”</p><p> To punctuate this statement Louis holds up his fists in Nick's direction.</p><p> “You're actually a feral child.”</p><p> </p><p>  <em>The cheesy high school AU no one asked for. Featuring a fake-baby. Hooray!</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby, You Light Up My World

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings:**  
>  There's one instance of homophobia / someone using a slur.
> 
> -
> 
> All my love and thanks to my beta [Becky](http://archiveofourown.org/users/alovelytempest). All remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> I changed the ages around a bit, so Louis is 16 and Nick is 17. They don't do anything sexual, though, so don't worry. (Oh and obviously I don't know anything about the real people mentioned here. This is a work of fiction, kids. But you're all aware of that, I'm sure.)
> 
> Do I even have to say where the title comes from? I couldn't decide on a title, so I thought I'd just go with a 1D lyric including the word "baby"...boy, did I underestimate the amount of times they sing baby. In the end I went with a classic. :D
> 
> Aaanyway, I hope you're all prepared because it's about to get fluffy in here.  
> Enjoy! :)

**Monday**

Louis knows he’s making a scene but he honestly couldn't care less if he tried.

“Why do I have to work with _him_?” he asks, pointing at Nick who offers nothing but a blan face in return. 

Ms. Allen's eyebrow twitches. It's not the first time Louis has provoked this reaction from her. It's alright, though – real trouble lies ahead only when she folds her arms in front of her chest and purses her lips. It usually means he's one step away from detention. 

“Because you were ill yesterday when we worked out the pairs. Nick missed the project last year when he actually should've it. Now you're the only two left, so please take your baby and sit down.”

Nick reaches out for the small doll they are supposed to take care of this week. Bristling with anger, Louis slaps his hand away and makes a grab for the doll himself. It hasn't yet been activated so its eyes are closed. For some reason Louis expected the doll to feel harder than it actually does. 

He holds the doll in her floral white onesie to his chest and turns around to face the class. Gesticulating in the direction of his friends and their partners and fake-babies, he complains: “Why have none of you traitors picked me as your partner?”

Liam, sitting in the first row next to Danielle,grimaces guiltily, but Niall, a few rows behind him, laughs at Louis. Harry sits up straight in his chair. 

“I didn't know same-sex parents were an option,” he explains,painfully earnest. “Otherwise I would've gladly raised a baby with you!”

Ms. Allen stands next to Louis and folds her arms in front of her chest. Naturally, Louis takes a step away in fear, sadly stepping closer to Nick in the process. 

“Which is the reason why I haven't told you,” Ms. Allen says. Harry frowns.

One more look by Ms. Allen finally gets Louis moving towards his seat. Since Harry has moved one row ahead to sit next to his partner Taylor, the seat next to Nick is now the only free one, which promptly leads to Louis, on top of it all, having to sit next to Nick. 

“Do you always throw tantrums in the middle of class? Any teacher who has to deal with you deserves a serious pay raise, love.”

Louis takes a deep breath in order to avoid smashing his head on the desk in front of him. Instead he carefully puts the baby down. Ms. Allen is explaining the rules of the project – again for Louis' and Nick's benefit, it seems – but Louis isn't paying attention. 

“It's just a week, Tomlinson. Not even a whole week, just five school days. You think you'll survive?”

“No,” Louis replies without missing a beat.

Nick rolls his eyes and tries to take the fake-baby again, so naturally Louis repeats his former action and slaps his hand away.

“This isn’t my idea of fun, either, you know,” Nick says testily after a moment and turns away to pay attention to their teacher instead.

Louis sinks down a little in his chair. That's the thing, really – he knows that. He knows Nick wants nothing to do with him and would have much preferred to do the project with Harry. Or anyone else that isn't Louis, for that matter. 

Drowning out Ms. Allen's voice Louis stares at Nick's hand where it's now resting next to the baby's head.

–

Louis' and Nick's relationship is – complicated. That might be the right word for it. Living in a small, sleepy town, they had known each other for as long as Louis can remember. Nick's family lives at the end of Louis' street, so Louis never had the option of simply avoiding Nick altogether, so in compensation he put much effort and time into making sure everyone knew how much he despises Nick. In return, Nick told everyone who wanted to hear it, as well as those who didn't, that he thought Louis was immature, way too loud and generally just a pain in the ass. 

And up until now that had been fine with Louis. 

Up until now he honestly thought Nick couldn't stand him. It was summer when he messed about with Niall in the town's park. They climbed a tree of which Louis promptly fell out of. He hadn't even been that high up yet, his only saving grace in retrospect. Nick was there, lazing about in the shadows with Harry. After his rather spectacular fall, Louis was unconscious for a little while. Not even a whole minute. Thirty seconds, tops. When he woke up, his head was in Nick's lap for some reason, although he couldn't focus on that too much because the pain in his arm was seriously imparing his higher thought functions. He could, however, later remember how worried Nick looked. After making sure Louis was still alive and in one piece, Nick gave him the lecture of his life. The whole twenty minutes it took to get to the hospital Nick spent talking about how irresponsible Louis had been and that he needed to be more careful and that he was never ever allowed to climb a tree again. Not even his mother's gentle admonishment, when she finally arrived at the radiology, compared. 

Louis tried not to think about the incident too much for a while, which worked fine until autmun. School started up again and with it the rumours. Normally, Louis didn't pay much attention to those, unless they involved him somehow, but a surprisingly large amount of people kept asking Louis (and even more so, Harry) if it was true – was Nick Grimshaw really gay? Louis still can't forget the swooping feeling in his stomach when the question had been brought to him the first time. It took a few days until Nick let everyone know that yeah, the rumours were true and he didn't much care what anyone had to say about that. Involuntarily, Louis was rather impressed by his courage. Not that he told anyone that.

On the very same day, Louis was just standing around with Zayn, waiting for his next class to start, when he was dragged into the drama – if it could be called that. He honestly hadn't even noticed that Nick and a friend of his (Louis thought hername might be Aimee but he wasn't sure) were standing in the same hallway, only a few feet away. 

Another guy Louis didn't know, who was slightly older and almost a head taller than him, was obviously looking for trouble when he said to Louis: “Hey, Tomlinson, aren't you the king of Grimshaw's fan club?” 

He and his two friends laughed, obviously pleased with their joke since, of course, everyone knew Louis couldn't stand Nick.

“What do you say about him being a fag now?” 

Louis looked up and around and spotted Nick almost instantly. He was looking back at Louis. All Louis could think of was the lecture he had given him when he'd fallen out of that stupid tree in the summer and how he hadn't let go of Louis all the way to the hospital, even when Louis had told him to fuck off. 

Zayn, still standing next to Louis, snorted and rolled his eyes at the people who had stopped to watch the incident unfold. 

Looking away from Nick, Louis turned to the guy who had asked him for his opinion. 

“There's more than enough reasons to dislike Nick. I mean, look at his hair, what kind of nonsense is that quiff? And you're really going for the fact that he's gay? What is this, the 50s? Give Elvis my best and then try to get your head dislodged from your ass, idiot. I mean, honestly. Do you wake up every day, wondering how you will manage to be the biggest asshole possible today? Because congrats, you're doing pretty well.”

For a second the guy and his friends looked taken aback by Louis' outburst, but then anger slowly manifested itself. Louis really, really didn't want to get into a real fight over this, so he just grabbed Zayn's arm and proceeded to drag him away. 

The fact that when he passed Nick, who he firmly didn't look at, their hands brushed for a moment – well, that was just a coincidence. 

–

This had taken place right after the school year had started and now it is almost over, summer only a few too-long weeks away. Now, for some reason, what Louis took away from all this, was an ever growing crush on Nick Grimshaw. It's not a situation Louis ever expected to find himself in. What do you do when the person you very firmly dislike is also the person you kind of really want to kiss all the time? How do you go from 'I hate your face and your opinions and everything that you choose to be' to 'Please hold my hand in the hallway and don't ever let go'?

Maybe Louis' method of hiding his crush with more anger isn't the most mature one, but he is 16 – a crush on his frenemy is basically the end of the world.

–

“Earth to Lou-bear, are you still there?”

Louis startles out of his daydream.

“Don't call me that!”

Nick's answer is laughter. He must have heard the name from Harry or, even worse, Louis' own mother. 

“Thought it might get you back to the land of the living,” Nick says and smiles. Louis is well aware that Nick is making fun of him but no one's gotten the memo to his stomach which he reacts with butterflies anyway.

“Fuck off,” he replies. 

Instead of acknowledging Louis' very witty comeback, Nick holds up a piece of paper for Louis to look at, except it's so close to his face he can't see anything. 

“Have you listened at all? Do you know what we have to do?” Nick asks. 

Biting down on his tongue to avoid sticking it out at him hurts. 

“Of course I've listened,” Louis says haughtily. 

He leans away from Nick, over to Niall and Barbara's desk, where Barbara is taking notes of some kind and Niall is holding the still not activated baby. 

“What do we have to do?”

Nick's laugh is loud next to him as he grabs Louis' wrist and pulls him back into his chair. 

Louis immediately pulls his hand away as if burnt and tries his best not to blush too hard. 

“How do you pass your exams every year?” Nick asks with an eye roll, but doesn't wait for an answer.

“We have to give the baby a name. This is our project report, which we have to hand in next Monday. We have to choose the baby's name first and write it down. Understood?”

“I'm not stupid. If even you understand the instructions, they can't be very complicated,” Louis replies. 

“And then she'll make rounds and activate all the fake-babies,” Nick continues as if Louis hasn't said anything. 

Nick puts the sheet back down and stretches his hand in Louis' direction expectantly.

“Pen?”

“Use your own? I'm not your servant.” 

Nick doesn't get a chance to answer because Harry turns around in his seat. He has refunctioned Taylor's green scarf into a kind of baby carrier so that his baby is now hanging in front of his chest. 

With a shit-eating grin Harry hands Nick a pen, then winks at Louis and says: “Here you go!”

Louis frowns at Harry in response. Since Louis has never told him about this unfortunate crush situation he's got going with Nick, he's not sure what Harry is trying to do other than being his usual weird self. 

“I haven't forgiven you yet for not being my partner on this!”

Harry opens his mouth to answer but Louis ignores him when he notices Nick scribbling something down on their report. 

“Hey, you don't get to pick the name!” he complains and pulls the sheet away from him, ignoring Harry laughing at them. 

“Ba?” he asks when he sees the name Nick has started to write down. 

They look at each other for a moment and then Nick gives a kind of helpless grin.

“Tell me you weren't trying to name our baby ‘Baby’!” Oh my God, what kind of idiot are you?”

“Our baby?” Nick repeats, his grin turning amused.

“We need a proper name!“

“Cross it out and write something else down, then,” Nick says, handing him the pen. 

Louis shakes his head.

“We can't cross it out! It’s kind of its birth certificate, isn't it? You can't cross stuff out on there, Grimshaw.”

“You're adorable, love.”

Interrupting himself in his righteous anger, Louis takes a deep breath. It's vital he doesn't forget that Nick is only making fun of him. 

“What names do you know that start with Ba? Is it a boy or a girl, anyway?” Louis asks quickly and almost stumbles over the first few words.

“Baldwin?” Nick suggests. “Balthasar. Baldric.”

Louis stares at him in horror but Nick doesn't notice as he leans forward to read something off the sheet.

“Oh no, it says it's a girl.”

Louis pulls the sheet back to himself.

“ _Balthasar_? Be honest, how many times were you dropped on your head as a child? Please, please don't ever have kids or at least let someone else do the naming for you.”

At that Nick leans back in his chair a little and drags a hand through his hair. Then he almost pouts at Louis while Louis fights the urge to drag a hand through Nick's hair, too. He really wants to mess it up even more than it already is.

“Then you pick something.”

Louis taps the end of the pen on the table while he thinks.

“Barbara?” is the first thing he comes up with.

“We can't name our kid after someone we actually know. That's weird,” Nick protests immediately.

“You're weird,” Louis says almost automatically.

For a few moments they're silent while they both consider potential names. Ms. Allen starts activating babies in the front row. One of them starts screaming as soon as it's activated. Louis didn't know they could actually do that. He's almost considering just crossing out the “Ba” on the report anyway, when Nick suggests: “Bailey?”

Naturally it's Louis' first instinct to say no but it's actually not the worst name ever. So, after a moment's consideration, he nods. 

“Since we don't have anything better,” he says and writes down the rest of the name. His handwriting looks weirdly small and square next to Nick's bigger, more flow-y letters. For some reason, Louis likes it. 

Ms. Allen arrives at their table and leans over to read the name on the sheet. She gives a satisfied little nod. 

“I feared you'd try to name your kid Superman,” she says while she pulls down their baby's onesie. “Liam tried to get away with Batman.”

Louis laughs loudly.

“Liam, you legend!” he yells across the classroom, making Liam turn around in his seat and flash him a thumbs up. Danielle, next to him, shakes her head at them. 

Finally Ms. Allen presses a switch on the baby's back that Louis hadn't noticed under the onesie and the doll opens its eyes. 

Bailey's light brown eyes are made of glass. Some microphone that sounds as if it's somewhere near her tummy, starts producing happy little baby sighs. 

“Oooh,” Louis coos without consciously choosing to. He takes the doll out of his teacher's hands before she can put its clothes back on. He takes care of that himself.

“Hi there, Bailey.”

–

“But why is he even doing the project with us? He's not in our year and – Niall!”

Louis tries to get his sandwich back from Niall but Zayn holds him back by the shoulders until Niall has taken a huge bite and put it back on Louis' plate by himself.

“You're not even eating, you're just complaining about Nick,” Niall says, chewing happily. 

“And whose fault is that?” Louis asks. “You lot let me down!”

He looks around his table accusingly. Liam looks back with his puppy eyes which makes it hard to be mad at him. Niall's back to ignoring Louis' rants and instead telling Zayn a story that involves way too many pints. Consequently, Zayn isn't paying attention to Louis either. 

Harry looks at him with a slightly manic grin. 

“Maybe it won't be that bad,” he says.

Louis takes an angry bite out of his sandwich while Harry keeps talking. Almost half of the sandwich is gone. Niall's got a giant bite.

“You could use it as an opportunity to get to know him better!”

He almost chokes when he tries to swallow his bite down hastily.

“Why would I?! We've known each other since we were children. I know him well enough to know I don't like him.”

“But you're not anymore! Children, I mean. Maybe you'll notice that you do like him.” He waggles his eyebrows a little, which is just. Weird.

Louis tries to keep the frown on his face, but he feels more shocked than anything. Why does Harry keep making these stupid suggestive little hints? Louis never told him about his crush on Nick. Yeah, there was a conversation during which Louis admitted to liking boys the way he likes girls. Harry hugged him and told him he loved him and then he started crying, which set off Louis as well. Louis hasn't, however, told him that he'd kind of realised his bisexuality because of a specific boy and he has sure as hell not mentioned that it was Nick. In fact, Louis tried to seem even more hostile towards Nick afterwards, just in case. As long as Harry can't read thoughts, there’s no way he should know the truth.

Louis doesn't get to answer him before Harry is hit in the head by an empty bag of crisps. Suddenly Nick is standing next to Liam and Louis, glaring at Harry. Then he holds their fake-baby out for Louis. Her microphones are producing a tinny crying sound and her eyes keep opening and closing.

“It’s crying.”

“It is a she,” Louis insists and takes Bailey from him. “You're holding her so awkwardly, it's no wonder. I'd cry, too.”

He carefully holds Bailey in his arms but she doesn't stop screaming.

“What now?” he asks. If she was one of his younger sisters, he'd change her nappy or feed her. Then maybe he'd sing a little song to her, but a doll can't have a full nappy or be hungry. 

His friends seem as helpless as he feels which isn't surprising, really, since all of them left their babies with their partners. Even though Louis had heard Harry and Taylor have a lengthy discussion about it.

“You don't ever listen, do you? Or do you have a very rare illness that makes it so that you're only able to stand the sound of your own voice?” Nick asks.

Niall starts laughing, so Louis points a finger at him.

“You're officially on my shit-list now,” he says seriously. Then he points at Nick.

“And you. Shut up and tell me how to make her stop.”

Nick steps behind their bench and then simply squeezes himself between Liam and Louis as if it's a normal thing for him to do. Louis almost stops breathing when his thigh is suddenly pressed firmly against Nick's. He tries to mask it with a false cough. 

Meanwhile Nick produces an empty baby bottle from his backpack. 

“Here, you have to pretend-feed her. That will stop her crying. If that's the problem, anyway.”

He hands Louis the small, blue bottle and Louis holds it to Bailey's barely opened mouth.

“And you couldn't have done that over there, on your own table, far away from me, because...?” he asks without looking up. Bailey stops crying and instead starts making little gulping sounds like she's actually drinking. There's not even anything in the bottle. 

“I obviously had a deep desire to see you feed a plastic doll,” Nick replies sarcastically.

“See, Louis! Nick wants to spend time with you.”

“Shut up, Harry,” Nick and Louis say simultaneously. 

Silence engulfs them for a moment during which Harry just keeps grinning at them. Louis really needs to find out what that's about. 

Finally the noises stop and Bailey closes her eyes.

“Does that mean she's fallen asleep?” Louis asks and holds the baby up in front of Nick's face. Nick just shrugs in response.

“Okay, then hold her. I wanna eat.”

He's about to start eating again when he notices that Nick just holds her by one arm so that she's dangling above the table.

“You can't be serious!” Louis exclaims. 

Carefully Louis arranges the doll in Nick's arms until he's satisfied with her position.

“Have you ever held a baby?” he asks and finally continues eating. 

Nick gives him a long look.

“You do realise this isn’t a real baby, don't you?”

“Shut up. _You do realise this isn't a real baby, don't you?_ ” Louis repeats mockingly with a full mouth. 

He's not entirely sure why Nick spends the rest of their lunch break at their table. He just keeps talking to Harry and Liam, who isn't loyal enough to hate Nick eternally the way he should. Louis really needs better friends. 

Nick's thigh is still pressed against his and if Louis moved his foot a little to the left, then they'd be touching all the way down their legs. Obviously Louis doesn't move his foot at all. 

Louis is finally about to put his head on Zayn's shoulder and start complaining in his ear about how annoying Nick is and why he's even there and why he only ever smiles at Harry like that and – stop. Anyway, Louis is about to start doing that when the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. Louis sits up straight and turns back to Nick. 

“Should I take her home with me for the rest of the day and then it's your turn tomorrow?” Nick suggests quite sensibly and smiles a little. His smile is mostly warm with only a hint of teasing and it throws Louis off. He takes Bailey from Nick's arms and holds her in front of his face so Nick can't look or smile at him anymore.

“I wanna go to daddy Louis!” he says in his most stupid baby voice. Then he pulls her down a little and shrugs at Nick.

“The baby has spoken.” 

Nick laughs. He's probably laughing at Louis but that's fine, that was his intention. Without paying Nick further attention Louis makes a grab for his backpack and gets up to leave. 

–

**Tuesday**

It took Louis quite a bit of time, but finally he had managed it: when he gets to school the next day, Bailey is transformed into a tiny little football fan. Louis spent ages going through his sister's baby stuff and finally found a tiny little Doncaster Rovers jersey that someone in his family had apparently worn as a baby. It might even have been Louis himself. In addition, he got Nick's number off Harry so he could take a picture of Bailey in her jersey that looked more like a dress on her and send it to him. 

(Of course his motivation was to annoy Nick. Not to have an excuse to ask Harry for his number.)  
(But if it was an excuse, Louis has to admit, it was a pretty good one.)

Nick's answer was lots of crying and shocked emojis and Louis grinned in triumph for almost half an hour. Finally, he also got Nick's snapchat and sent a snap of himself grinning with Bailey. Nick took a screenshot of the snap – Louis wasn't really sure what to do with that.

The time until the lesson they have with Nick seems to drag on. Niall honours Bailey's outfit by giving Louis a high five after which Harry takes a picture of Louis and the baby to post on Instagram. 

When Nick finally walks in, he gives Louis a smile as he walks up to their table. Louis really wants to kiss him kind of a lot, which is frustrating beyond reason. 

He puts Bailey in a sitting position on the table in front of him and holds her up with one hand. She is making tiny happy sounds after she started crying loudly in the middle of Louis' maths class earlier. 

He had to change her nappy, which basically means pulling down her clothes, pressing a little blue button right below her belly button, and then putting her clothes back on. Louis thinks that's quite a strange way to do it since the problem when changing a real baby's nappy is definitely not undressing and redressing them. On the other hand, he's relieved that Bailey doesn't produce any residues. Almost as relieved as he was when he found out last night that she shuts down automatically at night so the students can get enough sleep.

“I can't believe you really brought her in like this,” Nick says in a way of greeting as he sits down next to Louis. “I also can't believe you own a jersey this size.”

Louis grins. 

“Well, I'm full of surprises, aren't I?”

“You definitely are,” Nick replies and gives him a look that lasts a heartbeat too long. Then he takes Bailey and sits her down in front of himself.

“What have you done to my poor child?” he asks dramatically. Louis can't help but laugh.

“I improved her look! As soon as she's old enough, she can go see matches with me,” Louis says.

“Over my dead body!”

“Do you think they make those huge foam hands a little smaller? I'd get her one, it'd be adorable.”

They are interrupted by Ms. Allen coming to a halt in front of their desk and looking at them disapprovingly.

“The lesson started five minutes ago, in case you haven't noticed.”

They hadn't noticed. She turns around and is already back to talking about whatever they are learning today on her way back to the front of the class.

Louis gives Nick a sideways glance and as soon as their eyes meet, they both burst into quiet laughter. When Louis makes a face, just to make Nick laugh that bit harder, Nick slaps Louis' arm. Well, he tries to but mainly he just grabs it and holds on as he tries to calm down. His hand feels warm as do Louis' cheeks. 

It takes a moment and another disapproving glance by Ms. Allen but finally they both stop laughing and manage return their attention to the front of the class. 

Louis tries not to stare at his arm where Nick's hand was lying just a second ago. His arm feels tingly and Louis grimaces to himself.

–

During PE Louis manages to confront Harry. 

They're supposed to run rounds around the gym to warm up. Harry has his baby in a scarf in front of his chest again so he's more slowly jogging than anything and Louis matches his pace. He's not a big fan of physical exercise when it doesn't involve playing football. The only person going slower than them is, as usual, Zayn. Their PE teacher has mostly given up on engaging Zayn in the activities by now.

“You and Nick had quite a laugh earlier, right? You were laughing. People laugh when they have fun with each other.”

Louis slows down his pace even more when Harry starts to rearrange his baby.

“What's with you and Nick, Hazza?” he asks. “You were never this insistent that we get along.” Harry and Nick have been friends since Harry was about 12, and except for a brief period in the beginning, Harry has always accepted that his two best friends won't be each other's friends. 

“And you know he doesn't like me. And I don't like him either!”

Harry shakes the hair out of his face.

“It's nothing, just...” He takes a long pause to think. “I think that, maybe, if you gave him a chance, then you might like him.”

They pass their teacher and start on their next round around the gym. 

“You don't think so?” Harry says when Louis doesn't answer immediately. 

“He doesn't want me to like him,” Louis replies without thinking. “Wait, no, I mean–”

“Do you want him to want you to like you?” Harry interrupts him gleefully. “Louis, that's – oh, wait, wait, stop, Dorothy is falling out, wait a sec.”

They come to a complete stop and Harry starts rearranging his scarf and the baby. He's the only one in their class to carry it around like that. The others put their dolls off to the side or carry them in just one hand. Liam's baby is actually half-wedged into his armpit because Liam had been afraid that someone might step on the boy he still calls Batman. Louis is just thankful the poor thing can't smell.

“No, I don't him to want me to like him!” Louis insists.

“Because I don't like him. And you know that! He's self-centred and always needs attention and feels like he's above all of us just because he listens to music no one knows or cares about! And he never stops talking, have you noticed? Plus, his jokes aren't funny. And his whole face – it sucks! Just like his hair!”

Louis is running out of steam; Harry gives him a kind of surprised and questioning look that makes him feel uncomfortable. In the end, his solution is to speed up and run off.

–

Louis doesn't talk to Harry again until after the class is over. 

He's just picked up his sports bag and is about to follow Zayn, Niall and Liam to lunch when Harry appears at his side. His hair is wet and he gives Louis a truly tragic look. 

Sighing, Louis holds up his arm so Harry can slip underneath it and they can cuddle while walking. 

“Sorry,” Louis says after a moment because he realises he ran away for no good reason at all.

Harry turns his head to the side and nudges Louis' cheek with his nose. His wet hair grazes Louis' face and he grimaces.

“I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to push.”

Louis just nods and concentrates on staring at Niall's back as he's walking a bit ahead of them with Zayn and Liam.

“Do you like him?”

Louis almost stops walking at that but catches himself in the last moment. He stubbornly refuses to turn his head and look at Harry. Instead he squeezes his shoulder with his hand and sighs. 

Harry is his best friend. If he can't tell him the truth, he can't tell anyone. It just so happens that Louis is the type of person who loves to talk about this kind of thing. He's not good at keeping stuff to himself all the time. Maybe Harry could help him get rid of the crush as well. He could just tell him all the disgusting details about Nick he knows. There's bound to be something, right? 

Louis slowly takes a look around to make sure no one is listening in. 

“I don't know why, but yeah. I think I might. Which is weird because he also annoys the crap out of me? It's stupid.”

Harry presses his nose against Louis' cheek again. This time Louis simply pushes Harry's face away with his free hand.

“Louuu. It's great.”

“No, it's really not. Nothing about this is great. It's the end of the world as we know it! You need to help me get over it. It's your duty as my best friend.”

Laughter is all he gets. Harry is useless.

“You're always so dramatic! Why don't you just tell him?”

This time Louis does turn his head to Harry, just so he can give him his best doubtful look. 

“What?” Harry asks. “Just ask for a date! He's gay, you know.”

Louis really wants to push Harry away but he feels warm and cuddly and talking about it does help, if only a little. 

“Doesn't change a thing. We don't like each other.”

They arrive at the entrance to the cafeteria where Zayn is waiting for them. Niall and Liam are already inside, saving them a space in the queue.

“All right?” Zayn asks mildly when he sees Louis and Harry walking arm in arm. 

Louis nods but Harry says: “Lou is being a drama queen.” 

Zayn smiles and puts his arm around Louis from the other side.

“Business as usual, then.” 

–

Louis is busy colouring Disney princesses with Daisy and Phoebe when his phone rings. He’s about to start on Belle's dress when Nick's name flashes up on his screen.

He's never dropped a pencil so fast in his life. Without another word he grabs his phone and runs out of the kitchen. He doesn't stop until he is safely in his room, the door closed.

“Yes?”

“What the hell, Louis, that took ages!” Nick complains instantly.

Louis opens his mouth to defend himself or maybe just insult Nick but he's stopped before he starts.

“Bailey won't stop screaming,” Nick says, sounding slightly stressed.

“Okay? Fake-feed her or change her nappy. There's literally only two options.”

Nick is so frustrated that he deems it necessary to groan loudly into Louis' ear.

“I've already done both, but she's still screaming. Do you think she's broken? Should we contact Ms. Allen?”

The strange thing is Louis can't hear Bailey screaming in the background but maybe Nick has left her in another room to call Louis. 

Louis sits down on his bed and shrugs.

“I don't know? If she's broken, we'll definitely fail. What did you even do to her?!”

“Nothing,” Nick says. “Listen, can you come over maybe? So we can figure out what to do or whatever.”

After a moment of silence, Nick asks: “Louis?”

He realises he has to answer the question. He has to fight to find his voice again.

“Sure, yeah, I'll… I can't believe you broke our fake-baby!”

Nick ignores his accusation. 

“So you're coming over?”

“Sure.”

They hang up, so Louis immediately runs into the bathroom to check his appearance. He doesn't really have time to change anything since Nick only lives five minutes away. His old, blue, favourite pair of jeans and the blue and white striped shirt will have to do. He takes a moment to sort out his hair and fringe a little. 

He's greeted at Nick's door by Pig, Nick's dog, with a bark. Nick is standing next to her, holding Bailey.

“That was quick,” he says.

“I live down the street,” Louis replies distractedly and stares at the baby. The baby that's definitely, absolutely, not screaming. Not even a little bit. 

“So...?”

Nick drags a hand through his hair and bites down on his lower lip. His quiff has come undone since school and is hanging halfway down which is almost as distracting as the fact that the baby isn't fucking screaming.

“She stopped, literally, a minute after I called you. Out of nowhere, just stopped.”

“You're an idiot,” Louis says for a lack of anything else to say. He leans back to look down the street. Is Nick really going to make him walk back home after he's just made him walk here?

“It's not my fault the doll's a bit broken or whatever! I did everything right,” Nick protests. “You could stay here, I guess? I mean. You've walked all the way here, we could watch TV or listen to music or something? I mean,” Nick holds Bailey up a little, “you're her parent, too. I bet she wants to see you, too.”

After a moment of consideration Louis slowly raises his eyebrows and repeats: “I live down the street” because it's really not that far. He doesn't give Nick time to react, instead just pushes him aside as he makes his way inside, despite his words. 

Louis crouches down to pat Pig who wags her tail happily.

“Hey, big girl,” he coos. He knows Nick's dog because he's met him with her on the street a few times. Plus, when Nick got her a few years back, he showed tons of pictures of the then-puppy to absolutely everyone, including Louis. Maybe especially Louis because he acted annoyed by it. 

Pig licks Louis' hand. At least someone here is happy to see him. Nick looks vaguely confused and stressed. 

Slowly Louis stands back up. 

“Give me my baby,” he orders.

–

They end up in Nick's room, listening to music. Louis hasn't been in Nick's room for years. He still has the same, boring Ikea furniture everyone has. The walls are now orange, except for the one behind his bed which is a dark blue instead and decorated with posters and flyers all over it. Nick also owns more CDs than any record shop but that's not a surprise to Louis since Nick wants to become a famous DJ. Everyone knows that.

Out of sheer nervousness and over compensation Louis immediately sprawls out all over the bed. Luckily, Nick only laughs and pushes his legs aside so he can sit down next to him.

As Britney Spear's Toxic starts playing, Louis sits up again.

“I can't believe it! Nicholas Peter Grimshaw! Britney Spears?”

Nick holds a hand up to his chest in shock.

“Britney Spears is an icon, Louis William Tomlinson!”

Louis shakes his head but lies back down again and pulls Bailey to lie on his chest. He can hear Nick sing along quietly and tries not to laugh.

“Hey, shouldn't Bailey have a second name, too?” Nick asks suddenly. He hesitates for a moment, then adds: “Bailey Britney Grimshaw!”

This time Louis does laugh. 

“What in the world is wrong with you.”

“I think it's a good name!”

“Ignoring the Britney thing, do you honestly think she wouldn't have my last name?”

Sitting back up again, so he could look at Nick properly, he holds Bailey in front of his face.

“Bailey Jay Tomlinson,” Louis says.

Nick makes a face and Louis hits his shoulder playfully without letting go of Bailey.

“Tomlinson is way too long and not cool enough. Grimshaw's the perfect name,” Nick keeps insisting.

“Well, if this was our child, I'm assuming we'd be married, too, and there's no way in hell I'd take your stupid name. So both you and Bailey are going to have to take mine.”

It makes sense in Louis' head but after saying it out loud he feels awkward and random. Why did he say the thing about being married, oh God.

Nick takes the laptop off his lap and puts it on his night stand instead.

“No one with the name Nick Tomlinson is going to be a successful DJ. I'm sorry but it's gonna have to be Louis and Bailey Grimshaw.”

Louis raises his eyebrows.

“I hope you know that I will fight you over this. I will physically fight you over the hypothetical last name of me and our fake-baby.”

To punctuate this statement Louis holds up his fists in Nick's direction. 

“You're actually a feral child.”

Nick shakes his head and takes Bailey off Louis' lap to put her next to him. Then, in one movement, he pushes Louis back onto his back by his shoulders. 

When Nick leans over Louis to grin triumphantly at him, it escalates into a scuffle that goes on for a while. Finally Louis is lying half on his side with Nick on top of him when one of them kicks out and Bailey goes crashing to the floor.

“You monster,” Louis chokes out laughing, even though he is fairly sure that it was his leg that kicked her off. 

Then she starts crying. 

Cursing, Nick lets go of Louis and leans over him to pull Bailey back up on the bed. He doesn't seem to find her immediately because for a long moment, he's just leaning over Louis, pressing his chest to Louis' shoulder. Very slowly Louis turns on his back under him and lets out a breath to minimise the contact. 

“Aha!” Nick pulls himself back up and Bailey with him. He puts her down on Louis' chest.

“Miss Grimshaw is crying.”

“I didn't even know Miss Tomlinson had a sensor that would react to something like falling down,” Louis replies and rocks her back and forth, knowing that it can't possibly help.

The crying doesn't let up. After a minute or two, Louis makes Nick hand him her bottle. While he pretend-feeds her, Nick stretches out next to him. He starts playing around on his laptop again to change the music. 

Nick's bed is a normal single bed so there's not too much space and their arms and legs are touching in various place. Louis focuses harder on feeding Bailey than the task warrants. 

Bailey informs them that she's done eating by burping.

Louis finds that hilarious and laughs, but Nick frowns.

“She spent one night with you and her manners are already gone,” he complains.

“It's normal, it's what babies do, idiot.”

Louis drops the bottle to the floor and scoots further up the bed, trying to see the laptop's screen. 

“What are you doing?”

Instead of answering, Nick angles the laptop away from Louis.

Louis juts out his lower lip a little to pout, causing Nick to glance at him, groan, and put a hand on Louis' face to push it away. 

“You're ridiculous. I'm making a playlist, noisy.”

If Nick was any of his friends, Louis would lick his hand without hesitation. As it is, Louis just pretends to bite his fingers as he pulls away. He's not sure that's better.

Nick laughs quietly.

–

Louis wakes up to Nick's hand on his. It's the first thing he notices. They're still lying on the bed, next to each other, seemingly having fallen asleep in this position. Louis' hand is lying between them and on top of it is Nick's hand, just slightly gripping onto him. It's not really like holding hands since Nick is still fast asleep, but it's also not like not holding hands. Louis takes a moment to enjoy the sensation, then he turns his head to look at Nick. His mouth is hanging open in his sleep, which Louis probably shouldn't find endearing but no one is watching, so he smiles at it anyway. The laptop is still open and lying on Nick's stomach, although the screen is black, probably having gone into energy saving mode a while ago. 

Louis doesn't remember falling asleep. The last thing he recalls is lying on the bed without talking, listening to music. 

After a second of relaxed silence, Louis notices what's missing: Bailey isn't on the bed with them.

He sits up groggily and looks around. Nick's tiny grumpy sound when Louis pulls his hand away is a bit distracting, but he manages to ignore it. 

Bailey is neither on the bed nor next to it. She is, in fact, nowhere in sight.

“Nick,” Louis says and grabs Nick's shoulder to shake him awake.

“Did you put Bailey away somewhere before we fell asleep?” He knows it's a stupid question before he asks it because Nick hadn't even closed the laptop before falling asleep.

Nick frowns and opens his eyes.

“Wha,” he says sleepily.

Louis laughs despite himself and pokes him in the cheek. 

“Our fake-baby?” Louis asks. “Where is it?”

Yawning, Nick pushes Louis' hand aside. Then he lifts up the laptop from his stomach in order to sit up.

“I don't know. When did we fall asleep?”

Louis gets up off the bed entirely to have a look around the room. Maybe one of them had kicked the poor doll under the desk in their sleep. He looks out the window where it is dark already and then to the clock above Nick's door.

“About one and a half hours ago.”

Bailey isn't under the desk or on top of it. She's not to be found between the stacks of CDs either. 

“Really? Shit. I'm gonna be awake half the night,” Nick complains.

“Grimshaw, concentrate! No one cares about your old man problems. Our fake-baby is gone.”

Nick makes a grumpy noise in response but gets up as well. He's busy making sure Bailey really isn't in the room – as if Louis hasn't just done exactly that – when there's a knock on the door.

Eileen's head appears in the opening door and she smiles at them.

“Hi Louis,” she greets him. “Nice to see you here.”

“Um. Yeah. Hi. You, too.”

Obviously Louis has known Nick's mum as long as he's known Nick, so he doesn't really feel uncomfortable with her. It's hard to feel uncomfortable around someone who once changed your nappies. He still feels taken aback by her sudden appearance.

“I didn't want to wake you earlier because you looked very cozy and all, but I think Pig's got your doll?”

She grins as Louis' face flames up and Nick quietly says “Mum!”

The door is already halfway closed behind her as she turns back around to say: “Oh and Nick? Next time you have a boy over, warn us beforehand, yeah?”

Nick doesn't manage to finish his awkward explanation of “Mum, he's not...we're not, that's not...” before she's fully gone. Louis bites down hard on his lip and stares at the closed door because he doesn't dare look at Nick. He takes an unsure step towards it.

“Okay, so where's your dog?”

They find Bailey with Pig in her basket. Pig is asleep and Bailey is silent as well, which Louis hopes is not a sign that she's broken. 

“Why didn't my mum pick her up?” 

Louis bends down to pick the doll up, but Nick stops him and pulls his phone out.

“Wait, I wanna post a pic of this.”

“Are you crazy? We'll fail for something like this! Her dog could have chewed her up.”

Nick rolls his eyes good-naturedly and takes several pictures until he's satisfied.

“I doubt Ms. Allen follows me on Instagram.”

Prepared to protest the point further, Louis is taken aback when Nick turns the phone on him and snaps a picture of Louis' face.

“Don't you dare post that!” Louis threatens immediately and considers wrestling the phone from Nick to delete the picture. 

“Don't worry,” Nick says as he continues fiddling with his phone to choose a filter or whatever social media addicts like Nick and Harry do to their pictures. “This one's just for me.”

Louis instantly thinks back to the screenshot Nick has taken of the snap Louis sent him. 

Unsure what to say Louis finally picks Bailey up. Pig doesn't even notice her being taken away. 

When Louis prepares to leave, Eileen comes to the door to say goodbye as well.

After her third comment on what had previously happened (“Oh, I'm so glad I'll get to see you more often from now on, Louis, even if it's unexpectedly in Nick's bed!”) Louis starts quietly praying for a quick death and Nick's face has a nice pink colour. 

Finally Louis manages to say goodbye to her and murmur a “See you, Nicholas” in Nick's direction.

“See you tomorrow, Lewis,” is what he gets back.

–

**Wednesday**  


He starts the day exhausted. Turns out Nick isn't the only one with sleeping problems after taking a long nap in the evening. Louis tossed and turned for what seemed like forever, while trying not to over analyse the previous day's events. At some point he put his hand next to his body and took a moment to remember the feeling of Nick's hand on his. He fell asleep shortly after.

Only a few hours later, though, Phoebe walked into his bedroom and straight into his bed. She needed comfort after a nightmare. Louis couldn't even be angry with her since he'd told all the girls countless times to come to him instead of waking up their mum in the middle of the night. Although he felt dead tired at this point, he let her crawl into his bed and tell him all about the nightmare. After two good night stories she thankfully fell asleep again. 

Now Louis feels like death himself. It's no wonder he’s lying with his head on the desk and has Harry slowly massage his head. The treatment is relaxing and Louis is almost dozing off but then someone holds a screaming baby next to his ear.

Louis makes a whining noise but doesn't have enough energy to raise his head. 

“I think she wants her nappy changed,” Nick says, standing next to the table and grinning down at him.

“Then change her nappy,” Louis says and closes his eyes again.

Harry's hand on his head slows and almost stops until Louis makes another whining noise and Harry starts up again. 

He can hear Nick sitting down next to him and apparently taking care of Bailey because the screaming stops quite suddenly.

“Aww,” Nick coos in a fake sweet voice. “You haven't slept last night? I told you that's what happens when you take such a long nap in the evening. So much for old man problems.”

Louis blindly tries to hit him but misses his mark.

“Shut up. It's not my fault your music is so fucking boring that it sent me to sleep. It's not like I was the only one.”

Louis doesn't realise what they just revealed until Harry's hand stops completely. He raises his head slowly and is almost blinded by Harry's grin. 

“You guys hung out together? And took a nap, apparently?”

Frowning at him is the only course of action Louis can think of, so he does that first. He briefly considers denying everything.

“There was a problem with the baby,” Nick says and gesticulates to Bailey. 

She is wearing the normal, boring, white onesie again that she was wearing on the first day they got her. Louis wonders for a second where the football jersey got to. 

“The problem was that Nick's an idiot that can't even handle a fake baby,” Louis adds sulkily because no one is massaging his head anymore and he really just wants to be asleep. 

Harry looks a bit scandalised at Louis' harshness but Louis ignores it in favour of feeling bad for himself. 

“I wasn't the one who kicked her off the bed,” Nick replies.

Niall chooses that moment to lean over to their table.

“Sounds like it's getting interesting over here...”

He puts down his doll next to Bailey and said: “Here, play with your friend, Jordan.” 

Then he grins at Nick and Louis. 

“And you two, go on about the things you did together in bed.”

Louis considered putting his head back down on the table and pretending to be dead. They might buy it.

It's Nick who rolls his eyes and says: “You're all children. Harold, stop grinning, I'm scared for your skin. You're not even 16, you shouldn't be getting wrinkles yet.”

For the first time Louis is actually thankfully for a lesson starting when it finally happens. 

Only a few minutes later his head begins to feel heavy again and his eyes start to close. There are really more relaxing things than sharing your bed with a little girl prone to kicking. 

Suddenly there's a heavy weight on his thigh. He looks down and then to the side because Nick has just put his hand on Louis' leg. 

“You're honestly the worst student I've ever seen,” Nick whispers but he's smiling.

Nick shakes Louis' leg gently, presumably to keep him awake, but Louis is wide awake and on high alert now. 

“At least I'm in my own year,” Louis says a little too late and a lot nonsensically. Nick doesn't reply but he also doesn't pull his hand away. 

Suddenly nervous and not sure what to do Louis grabs Bailey to pull her close and rest his hands on her stomach. It takes him a few moments to calm down and gather the courage to look at Nick again, but Nick is now staring straight ahead. Is Louis imagining things or does Nick look as nervous as Louis feels?

Louis takes a calming breath and looks back to the front of the class. He doesn't know what to do with the fuzzy feeling in his head. It isn't much different from the day before, is it? Technically, they have held hands before, so if Louis just puts his hand on top of Nick's…

Although Nick doesn't remember them holding hands while napping since he was still asleep when Louis pulled his hand away. On the other hand, Nick's hand is still on Louis' leg and he doesn't look like he's about to pull away anytime soon, so what does Louis have to lose, really?

Louis just does it. He puts his hand on top of Nick's, palm on the back of Nick's hand. 

He can almost feel Nick's gaze on his face but his courage is used up, so he doesn't look back at him. 

They stay like that until the end of the lesson. 

For the rest of the day not even Louis' exhaustion can take away the giddiness he feels at the possibility that Nick might like him back, or at the very least not despise him entirely. He keeps jumping on his friends' backs and demanding piggy back rides or just screaming in their ears for the hell of it. At the end of the day not even Niall laughs at his behaviour anymore but Louis doesn't mind and gives him a tight hug.

–

Louis is bored. Except for Lottie all his sisters are asleep by now and she's copped up in her room. Their mum has the night shift tonight, so that it's only Louis sitting in the living room, watching some random sitcom without taking in anything. He can't stop thinking about Nick. 

This project has only risen his crush to unforeseen new levels but Louis can't bring himself to regret it.

His phone vibrates for the third time with a message from Harry who keeps telling him that he should make some kind of dramatic confession to Nick. Louis snorts and only sends back the talk-no-evil monkey emoji. Then he closes the conversation and opens one with Nick instead.

After a while of consideration, he finally sends:

 _'Bailey probably thinks shes an only child seeing as im the only one who ever takes care of her !!'_

Louis knows it's bullshit since they've been taking turns since Monday and Nick had only had her yesterday. But bantering with Nick comes naturally to Louis.

Nick answers almost instantly which comes as no surprise since he's constantly on his phone anyway. 

_'Not sureee the fake baby can think anything...'_ , followed by a bunch of emojis Louis doesn't even look at. 

So they end up texting back and forth and Louis keeps accusing Nick of being a bad dad until Nick threatens to come over right now and well. That's that. 

It doesn't even take ten minutes for Nick to text him that he should open the door. Louis has made sure to warn him not to use the door bell so he wouldn't wake up anyone. 

As soon as Louis opens the door, Nick takes Bailey away from him. 

“There's my baby!” he says to her and then to Louis: “The amount of bullshit you talk is truly astonishing, I had her just last night!”

Louis is careful not to point out that Nick came over anyway. Instead he tells him where to put his shoes when he takes them off. 

On their way to the living room Bailey starts screaming. Louis gives Nick an innocent smile over his shoulder as he pushes the door open. 

“Now that you're here, you can take care of that, right?”

Happy with himself and the world, Louis plops down on the couch. Nick huffs but starts undressing her anyway.

“I did that about half an hour ago, so she's probably hungry now,” Louis says but makes sure to wait until Nick is almost done undressing her.

“Thanks for the tip, love.”

Nick sits down next to Louis. The couch is pretty big, which is a must in a household with five children, but Nick sits down directly next to Louis, without a single inch of space between them.

Almost unconsciously, Louis sits up straighter. Bailey's screaming gets a bit louder, then, and he coos at her. 

“Where's the bottle?” Nick asks impatiently.

Louis leans down to where he's dropped it next to the couch and retrieves the bottle before handing it to Nick.

“It's almost 10, I think she's gonna shut down after that,” Nick says. 

Louis shrugs.

“Probably.”

He doesn't want Nick to have come over only to have him leave again just because Bailey shuts down. 

Nick drops the topic and nods in the direction of the muted TV which is showing The Big Bang Theory by now.

“Don't tell me you actually watch that? I may lose the little respect I actually have for you.”

Louis jerks his elbow into Nick's side.

“No, I was only channel surfing,” he admits.

“Do you want to wrestle again or what?” Nick asks and puts the bottle down on the couch table. 

He holds Bailey upright and gently pats her back, although that does nothing to help her burp, at least Louis doesn't think so.

“Remember, last time I won,” Nick adds.

Louis takes the baby from him and she makes her burping sound immediately. He cocks an eyebrow at Nick.

“No, you didn't. You just waited for one of the rare moments where you came out on top and then you kicked this poor little angel off the bed, so we had to stop. Some people would call that cheating, actually,” Louis explains. He cuddles Bailey to his chest, although she's gone quiet now.

Nick takes the remote and starts changing the channels without turning on the sound. It doesn't really matter, anyway, since he doesn't stay on any channel longer than a few seconds. 

A very quiet clicking sound tells Louis that Bailey is now turned off. He watches her close her eyes.

“This is the easiest project ever,” Louis says and lays her down on the couch next to him.

“I mean, what are they gonna mark us on? That she's still intact? Hard to manage with you as a partner but I think I can do that."

Nick stops on a random music channel and puts the remote back down. He still doesn't turn on the sound, so they're now watching Ariana Grande fight aliens without listening to the actual song. 

“Don't forget, we have to write a report. What we've learned from this, what we thought about having our own kids before, what we think now. That kinda thing. That's what they mark us on.”

Louis frowns a little.

“I hate writing reports.”

Because Nick is rude, he laughs.

“I'm not surprised. We should probably start on it soon,” he says but doesn't suggest starting right away, so Louis doesn't either. He likes to procrastinate those kind of things as long as humanly possible.

In an effort to get more comfortable, Louis puts his feet up on the couch table, next to the bottle, and leans against Nick. Well, it's not just for getting comfortable, but no one needs to know that.

Nick doesn't change his position, but he does start laughing.

“Are those Iron Man socks?”

Louis wiggles his right foot clad in a red sock with the Iron man logo on it. 

“Yep,” he admits proudly.

“You're actually 12, aren't you? That would also explain why your feet are so tiny, wow.”

His feet are a normal size! Louis jerks his elbow into Nick's side again.

“Not everyone can be bigfoot.”

Instead of answering Nick leans forward and makes a grab for Louis' feet, probably to tickle him. 

Laughing involuntarily, Louis kicks his hands aside. 

Just as Nick finally manages to grab one of Louis' feet, there is a loud, slightly ominous click, and then the lights and the TV go off. Suddenly they sit surrounded by utter darkness.

Louis sits up from where he is half-sprawled on the couch and tries to make out Nick's face in the darkness.

“Blackout?” Louis asks and Nick makes a noise of agreement.

“We have a torch somewhere, I think,” Louis says and already gets up, wondering where it could possibly be. 

Nick is quicker than him because he pulls out his phone and the light from the screen illuminates parts of his face.

“Wait, I've got an app somewhere,” he murmurs, typing around on his screen.

Suddenly the light of the phone's camera turns on. It's way brighter than just the screen and Louis squints.

“Stop flashing it in my face, idiot.”

Louis walks to the window and looks outside, still squinting.

“The whole street's dark. Even the street lamps.”

He flinches when Nick is suddenly next to him, their shoulders brushing.

“That sucks, I was about to suggest we go looking for the cutout box, but that won't help, then.”

“Probably not, no,” Louis agrees. 

None of the girls had come complaining yet, so Louis assumes Lottie has fallen asleep by now, too. It's good because dealing with a bunch of panicking or annoyed little sisters during a blackout does get aggravating. This way they just don't have light, but there are worse things in the world.

Louis grabs Nick's wrist and pulls him back to the couch. 

“Without power the TV doesn't work either,” Nick suddenly seems to realise. Louis can barely make out his fake pout by the little light they have.

“No shit, Sherlock. It's not like we were watching anything, we didn't even have the sound on.”

Nick flashes the light into Louis' face again, making him squint and blindly try to bat his hand away.

“God, you're useless! Give it to me.”

He waits for a second for his sight to return and then takes the phone from Nick to put it screen-down on his leg so they are both partly illuminated.

“We should tell scary stories,” Nick says.

Louis laughs at the unexpected statement.

“No, I don't want you to pee your pants on my mum's couch, Grimshaw.”

“I think you're the one more likely to do that. Harry told me about that thing two years ago at summer camp.”

Louis frowns as he tries to remember what Nick might be hinting at.

“Oh! I didn't pee my pants, I just let out a rather manly scream.”

Now it's Nick laughing. 

“Niall jumped you in the middle of the night and you screamed in a frequency that probably only dogs could hear!”

Louis pushes Nick away, embarrassed.

“There's no way Harry put it like that!”

When Louis tries to push Nick again, Nick simply puts both his arms around Louis' shoulders and pulls him against his chest, holding him so effectively that Louis couldn't move away if he wanted to. Not that he really does want to.

“No, he didn't,” Nick admits. “But he didn't have to. I can imagine it pretty well.”

Louis' throat suddenly feels dry, remembering that year at summer camp. 

They had a counsellor back then. His name was John and he was four years older than Louis, ginger-haired with freckles all over his face. Louis followed him around everywhere for the whole summer. His friends thought it was funny and Liam kept calling it hero worship, but Louis isn't so sure anymore that it was that. You usually don't get soft in the knees and dizzy in your head when your hero smiles at you, do you?

Louis starts to relax in Nick's death grip and leans his forehead against his shoulder.

“Hey, do you remember the beginning of this school year?” he asks, gathering courage. “When you outed yourself?”

Maybe it's just surprise at Louis' rather sudden question that makes Nick's grip even tighter for a moment.

“So we're telling scary stories, after all?” Nick asks and laughs, but it sounds awkward. Practised, maybe. Louis feels a bit sorry he asked but not enough to actually take it back or reflect in any way. He concentrates on keeping his breathing even, instead.

“Of course I remember that,” Nick says after a very long moment.

“Was it bad?” Louis asks without pausing. “I mean…,” he trails off.

“Well, it sure wasn't any fun,” Nick answers. “But it could have been worse, really. I didn't want to pretend anymore.”

Louis makes a small nodding motion against Nick's shoulder. He feels sick, his stomach all knotted up.

“Why? Did you suddenly remember that I'm gay and you don't want to do this?” Nick's voice sounds colder now and Louis kind of wants to ask him what 'this' means, what it is, but he doesn't. 

He chews on his lip a bit, trying to find enough courage to say what he wants to say. Nick drops his arms and releases Louis out of the hug. Louis doesn't lift his head from his shoulder. 

“I think.” He swallows his nervousness and tries again, slower than before. “I might like boys, too.”

Louis' voice sounds loud in the silence and it's made worse by Nick not immediately saying anything. Nick's hands are on his shoulders, after a moment, and he pushes Louis off and into an upright position so he can look at him. Louis stares at Nick's nose instead.

To out himself in front of Harry and a few days later his mother who hugged him for ten minutes straight is one thing, but Nick? That's another thing, entirely. He has the biggest crush since, probably, the invention of crushes on him, so it's quite another type of nerve-wracking.

“Are you trying to say… you're gay?” Nick asks quietly and hesitatingly and Louis laughs without any humour.

“No. Boys and girls. It's called bisexuality, you know.” 

It's actually the first time Louis ever says the word bisexuality out loud and it's a tiny victory, at least for a moment. 

But Nick lapses into silence, just looks at Louis and looks and looks and still doesn't anything. 

Louis can almost hear Nick go through all of their interactions again with this new knowledge, analysing them, realising what Louis is actually trying to say here. Is he thinking of a way to let him down easily? Louis' insides are turning cold.

“Say something!” Louis demands on the verge of being hysterical. Nick even opens his mouth as if to start speaking, but then he closes it again and shakes his head.

Louis sits back farther on the couch so that Nick's hands drop off his shoulders.

Why isn't he saying anything? There is no way Nick isn't okay with his bisexuality. He's gay, after all. Louis knows that the only possibly option is that Nick realises that Louis likes him _that way_ and that he's unsure of how to tell Louis to forget it. 

“Say something,” Louis repeats, almost pleadingly. Nick's face looks unmoving in the light his phone still provides.

“I… okay?” Nick says finally, his eyebrows drawn together. “That's… yeah. Congrats. I guess.”

Louis can't believe it. Subconsciously, he made up so many scenarios in his head for how this could go, but none of them featured Nick's complete lack of a reaction. God. Shit. Louis feels so sick. He considers just vomiting all over Nick's feet, but he has a little honour left.

“Thanks. _I guess_ ,” Louis mocks him in the most childish way possible but he can't help it right now. He feels vulnerable and embarrassed down to his bones and a thousand more things he needs to carefully sort through before naming them.

“No, I mean…” Nick trails off.

Louis hands Nick his phone and gets up abruptly. 

He is no longer interested in talking to him, really.

“It's quite late, probably way past your bed time,” Louis says and turns away, marching into the hallway. “It's probably best if you head home.” 

He doesn't give Nick any time to maybe finally find his voice and an answer because he honestly can't bear being there any second longer. So he feels his way along the wall and to the stairs before climbing them two at a time. Arriving upstairs, he stops for a moment.

It's silent for a while but then he hears Nick cross the hallway. When Nick pauses for a moment, Louis holds his breath in, scared he'll come up the stairs and follow him. He needn't have worried, though, because Nick just puts on his shoes quietly and quickly and a few seconds later the door falls shut behind him.

–

**Thursday**  


Louis is in a spectacularly bad mood. Yet again he had barely slept at all, instead opting to toss and turn in his bed all night. Why had he been stupid enough to out himself in front of Nick? He should've known it wouldn't lead to anything.

At breakfast he is so tired that he snaps at Fizzy and, a few moments later, at his mum. She sends him to school early after that, just so he won't be around his sisters in his mood. At least he won't be late to his first class today, he supposes.

He gets to school and walks through the empty hallways, Bailey in hand. When his classroom is in sight, he stops dead in his tracks. Nick is standing next to the open door to Louis' first class, playing around on his phone and looking incredibly bored. For a moment Louis considers turning around and just going back home to bury into his bed and never be seen again. What is Nick doing here, anyway? They only have that one class for the project together and it's the one right before lunch, definitely not now. 

Louis clenches the hand that's not holding Bailey into a fist. Ever since he's known him Nick has done nothing but complicate Louis' life. 

Slowly Louis approaches the door. The sound of his steps is enough to alert Nick. He looks up.

“Louis–”

“Grimshaw,” Louis replies quickly. At least there aren't any other students in the hallway to witness this train wreck.

“Do you have a moment? I want to talk to you,” Nick asks.

Louis holds Bailey up higher, almost like a shield. He kind of wishes she would start crying right now just to provide a distraction, but she stubbornly remains silent. 

“No, I have a class now. Get lost.”

Nick puts his phone into his pocket as if Louis has just invited him for a nice long chat. It makes Louis irrationally angry. 

“But class doesn't start for another ten minutes. I just wanted to explain–”

Louis passes Nick, careful not to touch him in any way.

“I don't want to talk to you, okay? Forget what I said and fuck off.”

Although he's trying his best to sound calm and collected, Louis can hear the slight tremor in his voice. 

When Nick reaches out to touch Louis, possibly to hold him back, he flinches back so hard he almost hits his shoulder on the doorway.

“Don't fucking touch me,” Louis hisses before disappearing into the classroom. He dramatically bangs the door close behind him. 

Eleanor, the only other person in the room this early, who looks as tired as Louis feels, slowly raises her head from where she rested it on the table. She notices his obviously distressed demeanour immediately and gives him a warm smile. Louis tries to smile back but it sits on his face like a grimace. 

–

Nick tries again during the class they have together, obviously. Louis is prepared for this. His bad mood seems to be so obvious that his friends have so far spent the whole day surrounding him like moths a bright light. They keep trying to hug him and crack stupid jokes to make him laugh, which is lovely of them, really.

“Hazza, can you sit next to me?” Louis asks before Nick arrives, pouting for effect. “I don't wanna sit next to asshole Grimshaw.”

Harry turns around in his chair and gives Louis an inquiring look.

“But I thought…” He pauses. “Oh, Louis. Is this about Nick, then?”

Louis shakes his head quite vehemently but Harry obviously doesn't believe him. He looks about a second away from starting to properly question Louis on what happened, so Louis turns to Niall instead. 

“Nialler, you want to sit next to me, don't you?” For good measure, he addresses Barbara, too: “Do you mind if I borrow him for a bit?”

Barbara gives him a smile that's a curious mix between confused and amused, but she nods. Niall is up and next to Louis within a second, putting an arm around his shoulder.

Louis enjoys his cuddle.

“See, Niall's a better friend than you!” he says to Harry who still looks contemplating. 

“We'll talk about this later,” Harry tries to threaten but he's about a scary as a wet puppy so Louis doesn't take it very seriously. At least not yet. He knows Harry won't let it go. He's kind of counting on it, really. He wants to tlak about it but he won't do it without some needling.

Nick enters the room a few seconds later. Of course Louis would prefer if he just sat down next to Barbara quietly, but it's Nick's life mission to make Louis' life difficult, so he stops in front of Louis' desk. 

“Hi,” he says. Harry is the only one who greets him back.

“Can I have my seat back, Niall?” Nick asks and Louis can hear him trying to remain calm and relaxed.

“Sorry, mate. I'll sit next to Lou today, but there's a free seat next to Babs you can have,” Niall replies happily. 

Louis squeezes Niall's hand on his shoulder, thankful for his support. He's sure Liam and Zayn would have supported him the same way but they have their seats in the first row, so they can't really hear what's going on. Liam was separated from Louis on the first day due to their unfortunate tendency to distract each other in class and Zayn had followed him to the front, so he wouldn't be alone. 

“I can see that but Barbara's not my partner for the project, is she?”

Louis glares at Nick.

“Are you serious? You're honestly – I don't even have words for how much you piss me off,” Louis tells him. “You can sit on the floor for all I care, but there's no way you're sitting next to me.”

Nick huffs but finally turns away to sit next to Barbara who smiles at him.

“Man, yesterday I thought you'd finally get along,” Niall says quietly and laughs. “Guess I was wrong, huh?”

Louis only shrugs vaguely in response. The problem is, Niall wasn't wrong – they got along great the day before. Maybe, if they had kept on that path, they could've developed a proper friendship. Instead Louis was stupid and hasty.

–

During lunch Nick keeps to his table, thankfully. Their eyes only meet once. Nick gives him the shyest smile Louis has ever seen on him and Louis frowns and glares back. He doesn't understand why Nick is trying to act nice and understanding, why he's trying to talk to Louis at all. Shouldn't he be happy to have gotten rid of Louis, finally?

–

The school day is almost over when Louis uses the short break between two classes to use the bathroom. Of course he sees Nick at the other end of the corridor but he doesn't think about it any further. Well, that's a lie, actually. He's spent the whole day thinking about nothing but Nick, but he doesn't think about the implications of Nick seeing him go into the bathroom on his own. When he's done and starts washing his hands, Nick enters the room, of course.

“Do you have any plans of dropping the 13 year old drama queen act anytime soon?” Nick asks, unexpectedly angry, and crosses his arms in front of his chest. 

“The very moment you drop the stalker act,” Louis replies sweetly and stares at his own reflection instead of looking at Nick. 

The bell rings, signalling the beginning of their next class, but neither of them reacts.

“Give me five minutes to explain what happeneded yesterday,” Nick demands.

Louis dries his hands slowly and drops the paper towel into the bin. He turns around to look at Nick.

“Nothing happened yesterday. Leave me alone.“

Nick looks frustrated and Louis keeps expecting him to stomp his foot on the floor and start a tantrum.

“That's not true. Something happened. Why are you so fucking frustrating?”

Louis gives him his best glare. Is he serious? Is he actually serious with this? Louis tells him his biggest, most important secret and Nick acts disinterested at best, but now he's got the nerve to call Louis frustrating?

“Go fuck yourself,” Louis says. He picks up Bailey from where he put here on the windowsill.

“You have to talk to me at some point. We have to write the report together,” Nick points out.

Louis shrugs.

“Write your stupid report yourself.”

Nick frowns. 

“Give me Bailey, then.”

Louis turns his upper body and with it Bailey away from Nick and shakes his head.

“It's my turn, you had her last night,” Nick says.

“And I'll have her again tonight.”

Louis knows he's being nonsensical, of course. Why would they even fight over this? Bailey turns off at night, so it doesn't make any difference where she is. But Louis is still hurt and angry and wants to disagree with everything Nick says. 

“Fine!” Nick turns around and away from him. “Be that way.”

He storms out of the toilet, the door falling closed behind him. Louis stares at it for a moment. He doesn't know what's worse – the Nick who desperately tries to apologise or the Nick who gets fed up and gives up on him. 

–

“Will you tell me what your fight with Nick was about now?”

Louis kicks his bedroom wall in order to avoid falling asleep. It's almost midnight but Harry won't leave him alone. 

“Lou,” Harry says, drawing out the nickname, when Louis doesn't answer, so Louis makes a kind of affirmative grunting noise to signal that yes, he's still here, he's still listening. 

Harry laughs which makes Louis smile in turn. 

“We didn't have a fight,” Louis says finally because technically it's true.

“That's what you keep saying!”

“Because you keep asking!”

Louis snuggles further into his duvet and listens to Harry sigh down the line.

“Nick seemed seriously upset today.”

“Good,” Louis can't stop himself from saying. Nick is supposed to be upset because Louis doesn't exactly feel on top of the world, either. 

“And I kept asking him what was wrong and he did say it was about you! But he wouldn't tell me what happened.”

Louis frowns. His phone vibrates but he ignores it since it's probably just a Facebook notification or a message in their group conversation.

“Why are you talking about me? Don't talk to him about me! In fact, don't talk to him at all. You're my best friend, you have to pick my side.”

“Louis,” Harry says seriously. It's a bit hard to pick out different moods with Harry's generally monotone voice but Louis is an expert by now. 

“I won't pick anyone's side. You're both so frustrating, why can't you just–”

Louis' phone vibrates again. 

It's the second time today that Louis’s been called frustrating. 

“Why am I frustrating? I did what you fucking told me to do and I put myself out there and I told him – and your precious Nick reacted like an asshole –” and he broke my heart a little. He doesn't say that, takes a deep breath instead, but before he can continue ranting, his phone vibrates yet again.

“And some idiot won't stop texting me, for fuck's sake,” he half-shouts in anger.

“But Lou… are you sure that's what happened with Nick? I mean, how did he react exactly?”

That slows Louis down. What kind of question is that? Of course Louis is sure that's what happened. Sure, he hadn't told him explicitly that he has a crush on him, but hadn't need to.

A soft tap somewhere in his room makes Louis look up. Did something fall off his desk? The sound occurs a second time and Louis can actually see something hit his window. He gets up.

“What the…”

Harry asks what's happening, but Louis doesn't answer as he walks over to the window. Another small stick hits it.

“Someone is throwing fucking sticks at my window, hold on,” he says to Harry and opens the window to lean outside. 

This is why the next stick hits him right in the nose.

“Fucking! Ow!”

He rubs his nose soothingly and looks down. Even from the first floor Louis can see Nick looking sheepish.

“Nick?!”

He forgets for a moment that he's still on the phone with Harry but is reminded instantly when he starts squealing into his ear.

“Is he in front of your window? Oh my God, Louis, that's so–”

“Shush for a minute,” Louis interrupts him and holds the phone a small distance away from his ear.

“What are you doing?” he asks Nick.

“Well, to be fair, I texted you like twenty times but you didn't answer,” Nick shouts back and shoves his hands into his pockets.

“My sisters are asleep, stop shouting.”

“I'm not leaving until we've talked.”

“We are talking,” Louis points out.

Even from the distance Louis can make out Nick rolling his eyes. It's a very familiar movement. 

“You know what I mean.”

“You've seen too many 80s teenage flicks. Have fun sleeping in my backyard, then.”

Harry shouts Louis' name loudly several times until Louis holds the phone back to his ear.

“What?”

“Louis Tomlinson! Just talk to Nick, give him a chance.”

Louis snorts. “No.“

Harry sighs heavily while Nick is still in Louis' backyard, looking nervous.

“Just talk to him, alright? Please. If you're still angry at him after that, I promise to call him smelly Nick for a month.”

Louis laughs, surprised at the mention of the nickname he had given Nick in kindergarten. 

Leaning forward a little, he tells Nick to come to the front door. Then he closes the window hastily before he can change his mind. His conversation with Harry ends quite abruptly with a simple “I'm hanging up now!” 

On his way down the stairs Louis passes a mirror and he can't resist the temptation to stop and consider his appearance for a moment. Since he's just relaxing at home, he's wearing a pretty run down pair of joggers and a simple blue shirt. His hair resembles a bird's nest more than anything, but then again, Nick didn't give him any warning, so he'll have to deal with Louis like this. It's not like Louis cares.

“If you wake up anyone in this house, they'll never find your body,” he tells Nick as he opens the door. Nick is dressed nicely and his hair is even styled up to Louis' annoyance.

“Did I wake you?” Nick whisper-asks while taking off his shoes. Louis waits until they've climbed the stairs and safely arrive in his room before answering that no, he was talking to Harry on the phone.

Louis sits down on the bed. He doesn't offer Nick a place to sit and takes pleasure in Nick's uncertain face as he looks around. Finally he sits down on the chair by Louis' desk. 

“Ah, so he convinced you to finally let me in?”

It's annoying how well Nick knows him, so Louis lies and shakes his head.

“So? Talk, then” he prompts Nick. 

Nick searches for Louis' gaze and then holds it.

“Have you ever considered that you terrify people, Louis? Because you do.” He pauses and Louis wonders if he's practised this, maybe in front of a mirror. “Especially me, sometimes.”

Louis frowns.

“No, I don't.”

Over the years, Nick had shown many reactions to Louis but he had never once seemed intimidated.

“That's stupid,” Louis says.

Nick shrugs and rolls forwards with the chair, closer to Louis.

“Maybe. It was particularly bad this week, though. I was constantly afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing.”

He's not sure he gets what Nick means. This doesn't really seem like the Nick he knows.

“But you always say the wrong thing. Sometimes I think you make a list of things to say that would piss me off and then work your way through.”

A little smile escapes Nick, but he still looks nervous, which makes Louis feel nervous as well.

“Yeah, but you think that's funny. What I was scared of was saying something that would make you pull away. Because these past few days we were kind of getting closer and… yeah. We were getting closer, right?”

Louis doesn't answer right away, so Nick says: “Tell me that wasn't just in my head.”

“It wasn't! We were getting closer until you went and ruined it!”

“I didn't ruin anything, I–” Nick stops and takes a second to collect himself, it seems. “You surprised me, alright?”

“Oh, I'm so sorry that my coming out was too surprising for you,” Louis says, annoyed.

“No, that's not it… oh for fuck's sake.”

Nick gets up, suddenly, walks the few step towards the bed and sits back down next to Louis. Then he takes Louis' hands in his and says: “I'm proud of you for being brave enough to out yourself. And I'm seriously glad you trust me enough to do it in front of me. You're still the same Louis to me, only much braver. Alright?”

Louis is not entirely sure what's happening. Nick is holding his hands and his heart is trying to escape his chest, that's all he really registers.

“That's what I should have said, right? Or something alone those lines, anyway.”

Slowly Nick lets go of his hands and folds them up in his lap. He bites down on his lip and stares at Louis. He's close enough to make Louis nervous who had felt a bit more secure with Nick on the other side of the room. 

“But I didn't say that. Because I was too scared that if I opened my mouth, the only words that would come out would be about how much I fancy you.”

This is it. Louis is going to die. His heart is going to beat its way out of his chest and he's going to die. 

“Because I do. But it wasn't the moment to say that and I didn't want to ruin your coming out or cheapen it by trying to hit on you or anything. So I didn't know what I could actually say, so I ended up being a knob and saying nothing at all. Does that make sense?”

Louis buries his hot face in his hands. Nick's face is red as well but surely Louis' is darker. He feels tingly and bubbly all over and can't help laughing.

“No, it doesn't make any sense! You're a wanker!”

When Nick doesn't answer, Louis lets his hands sink down and looks up at him, a huge grin on his face.

“So? You're gonna kiss me or are just gonna sit there all night, gaping like an idiot?”

Nick's mouth falls open.

“What–”

“Did you honestly think I told you I'm bi just because I wanted to share the news or whatever? After we held hands in class and you hugged me on the couch? You really thought I would be opposed to you fancying me? I wanted you to do something about it because I've had a crush on you for the better part of the year now, so I swear to God, Nick Grimshaw, if you don't kiss me within the next–”

Louis' rant is interrupted in the best possible way.

Nick leans forward and finally, finally kisses Louis. It's a chaste kiss, nothing more than their lips slowly moving against each other, but Louis wouldn't have it any other way. He feels like, if it wasn't for Nick's hands on his shoulders, he'd simply float away into the air.

After a long while, Nick leans back, albeit not very far.

He looks dazed, but Louis feels the same way, so he can't even make fun of him.

“And you couldn't have said something sooner, you menace? I hate you.”

Pleased and happy, Louis allows himself to drag his hands through Nick's hair to mess up all his careful styling.

“Me too,” he answers.

So they end up kissing for what feels like ages. And then a bit more, for good measure. 

When Louis pushes Nick away to stop them kissing, he immediately decides he's too far away now and pulls him back in. By now they're both lying on their sides on the bed.

“I'm about to fall asleep,” Louis confesses. He still feels excited but all the nervousness has melted away, leaving him comfortable and happy and cozy. 

Nick presses a kiss to Louis' nose which is just bewilderedly cute of him and pulls his phone out of his pocket. 

“Wait, we have to take a snap.”

“Why? And send it to who?”

He watches Nick open the snapchat app and focus the camera on the both of them.

“To Harry.”

Louis laughs.

“But why?”

“He deserves it! You don't know how much the poor guy has suffered. I've annoyed him with talking about you for months now.”

Harry really could have told Louis that his stupid crush wasn't one-sided at all. It seems like Louis will have to come up with a nice little plan to get back at him. Maybe he ought to say thanks, too. 

When Nick takes the picture, Louis opens his eyes and mouth wide until his face is a grimace. Nick, on the other hand, pulls his most serious selfie face.

“What's with that face?” Nick complains. The picture looks ridiculous and Louis loves it quite a bit. He takes the phone from Nick to download the picture off the app. Then he adds the smiling poop-emoji instead of any proper text and puts it right above their heads.

He hands the phone back to Nick who finishes the picture by adding the heart-eyes-emoji and then finally sends it. 

Immediately after Nick puts the phone down on Louis' night stand, it starts vibrating with Harry's probably hysterical texts. Louis feels exhausted in a good way but he kisses Nick again instead of falling asleep immediately. And then again. Just because he can. 

–

**Friday**  


It's Bailey’s screaming that wakes them up the next morning. Louis grumbles and rolls over on his side. Bailey keeps crying. While trying to grab her from the night stand without actually opening his eyes, he hits Nick right in the face, so that it's now Nick who grumbles. 

Louis finally feels one of her tiny arms and pulls her towards himself. He's halfway through undressing her to press the button that simulates changing her nappy when he catches sight of the clock.

“Fuck!”

Nick buries his head further into the pillow and makes a grab for Louis' leg which is bare since they'd slept in shirts and boxer shorts. Very quietly, Nick murmurs: “You're very loud, please be less loud?”

“School started twenty minutes ago,” Louis answers.

He doesn't think he's ever seen anyone sit up this fast. Nick looks at the clock, too, and sighs.

“Don't you have an alarm?” he asks.

“I didn’t set it yesterday, I was a bit distracted!” Louis defends himself. Honestly.

Nick grins brightly at Louis, probably proud of himself for that. Then he leans forward as if to kiss him and Louis is sadly forced to push his face away.

“You didn't even brush your teeth last night, let alone this morning, take your stinky mouth away,” he says, laughing. 

Nick rolls his eyes and stands up. Then he takes Bailey who Louis has stopped screaming by now and puts her clothes back on. 

They get ready in record time. Nick simply washes his face and pulls last night's clothes back on because he insists on going by his house before school since they're late now anyway. 

After going to Nick's where he finally brushes his teeth and celebrates by wasting five minutes on kissing which Louis can't really complain about, the school is already in sight when Louis suddenly stops in his tracks. 

“Oh my God,” he says. “My mum probably wondered why I didn't come down for breakfast and came to wake me up…”

Nick pulls him further down the street, holding Bailey in one hand and Louis' wrist in the other. There is no one to be seen on the street at this time of the morning, so Louis considers just taking Nick's hands properly for a moment, just for comfort.

“And then she saw me,” he finishes Louis' sentence. He seems a little less shocked than Louis but it's not his mother who saw them like that, is it? (Well, technically, it is because the same thing happened with Nick's mum on Tuesday but Louis doesn't have the capacity to focus on that, too.)

“Is that very bad? Does she know you're bi?” Nick asks.

Louis nods and starts walking properly by himself again.

“Yeah! Sure, but… she didn’t know it was you.” He pulls a face. “She's gonna laugh at me forever when she finds out the guy I've been complaining about for years is now my boyfriend.”

It's almost kind of funny to see Nick's face freeze completely. Louis considers taking a picture.

“Your boyfriend?” Nick asks, sounding overly relaxed and not at all nervous. He starts chewing on his lips and keeps staring straight ahead.

“Unless you have a problem with that?”

Nick stops walking. He slips his hand properly into Louis' and smiles widely.

“No," he says, "no, I don't think I have a problem with that at all.”

Louis is almost grinning too hard to kiss Nick properly but he gives it his best try anyway.

\- 

And no matter what Nick says, Louis does not get teary-eyed when they have to give Bailey back later that day. Nick's a bloody liar. It's just… Louis owes her quite a bit, doesn't he?


End file.
